Starscream
Starscream was First Lieutenant of the Decepticons and has been one of the longest-lasting Decepticons to continue functioning, next to his former master, Megatron. But ever since his liege's abandonment of the Decepticons and newer Decepticons taking up the cause, Starscream has also deserted the Decepticons but continues to seek Leadership over them by building up his own Army. Starscream has more than demonstrated his power over the years, and since gaining new powers and abilities from a race known as the Others, he has become one of the Transformers' greatest threats—becoming the biggest threat to both Autobot and Decepticon alike. Starscream has seemed to made an enemy out of techn-organic Autobot Olivia Holt due to having killed Crosshairs in front of her during the Great Wars. He also appears to be rivals with the Dimension Guardian known as Agent. This has made Starscream one of the few known Transformers to have multiple arch foes. His null rays can demolish large buildings, and were able to send Optimus Prime flying, and he can fly around so fast that he can break free of Yats's magnetic powers. Unfortunately, all these abilities are offset by an enormous ego and the tendency to make long, overbearing speeches when he should just get on with it and fight. More than once, his leanings towards bombast have caused him to miss a golden opportunity. Sadly, he doesn't seem to be learning from these mistakes. At some point, Starscream managed to take complete control over Cybertron, driving the Autobots off and subsequently creating a new Cybertronian Government. Since taking over Cybertron, Starscream has dubbed himself "Emperor Starscream," for obvious reasons. History Decepticonz Starscream was one of Megatron's seemingly loyal Decepticon Warriors, alongside other Decepticons like Blackout, Bar Trap and Shadowcharger. However, he had secretly partnered up with Shockwave and Mindwipe to usurp Megatron, though the threesome always acted loyal to Megatron. Blackout had his suspicions, which made him rivals with Starscream. While Shockwave enacted strategies for them, Starscream would often move with Mindwipe in numerous attempts against Megatron. As a result, many Decepticons questioned why their leader didn't just terminate him. Starscream was a part of many of Megatron's plans—including stealing the AllSpark, attacking the Autobot Base and leading assaults on human settlements. At one point, Starscream killed Cliffjumper, who was partnered to the Autobot Arcee. There were several occasions on which Starscream went rogue and acted against Megatron only to eventually rejoin the Decepticons. There were also other incidents in which he would get into fights with Blackout, who seemed to act as Megatron's second-in-command. At one point, Starscream was planning against Megatron with Shockwave and Mindwipe, only for his plans to be revealed to Megatron by Soundwave, who immediately came to settle matters. Starscream fought back, but he and his allies were defeated and Megatron threatened Starscream into rejoining him. Despite this, Starscream continued to seek an opportunity to usurp Megatron. Eventually, Starscream formed an elite unit known as the Decepticon Destroyerz, which consisted of Decepticons like Blitzwing, Shockwave, Soundwave and even Blackout (much to his annoyance). Decepticon Destroyerz Era Destroyerz The Decepticon Destroyerz were an elite band of Decepticons who would often go on the most dangerous of missions into Autobot territory, with Starscream serving as their leader. Blackout's reason for joining was merely to keep an eye on Starscream and make sure he didn't turn the Destroyerz against Megatron. Eventually, Starscream's lust for power led to Blackout turning on him, a battle which ended with Starscream killing Blackout and branding him a "traitor" to the Decepticons. As the Great Wars progressed, so did some of Starscream's own alliances. His partnership with Shockwave had seemed to strengthen, but his partnership with Mindwipe weakened, leading to a battle between them. Mindwipe survived Starscream's attack and abandoned the Decepticons, with Starscream ordering a hunt for the traitor. With Soundwave's help, Starscream tracked down Mindwipe and defeated him again, this time having seemingly killed him. However, Mindwipe had managed to survive and went into hiding. The Destroyerz were present during the Invasion of Chicago, when Megatron and Sentinel Prime conspired to bring Cybertron to Earth and use the Earth's resources to rebuild their homeworld. Starscream was apparently killed while trying to deal with Sam Witwicky, and many of the Destroyerz were killed in the ensuing battle, including Shockwave. Destroyerz 2.0 Sometime after the Battle of Chicago, Shockwave (who had somehow survived Chicago) reconstructed the Destroyerz and resurrected Starscream, who now wanted revenge on Sam Witwicky for his supposed destruction. To this end, he sought out the Autobots' human allies like Carly Spencer and Mikaela Banes. His vengeance also led him to recruiting allies such as Ghost and Terrotack to his cause. Starscream also partook in various battles with the Autobots, including destroying the Autobot Base in Jasper, Nevada and the subsequent Battle of Darkmount. Sometime before the Decepticons attempted to cyberform Earth using the Omega Lock, Terrotack had gone rogue and joined the Autobots. Starscream was present along with Shockwave when the Autobots stormed the Nemesis, resulting in a huge battle, in which he battled Arcee and Stealth Team but was beaten. He was shocked by Megatron's death at the hands of Bumblebee and vowed to avenge his leader, forcing Shockwave to drag him away. After Cybertron's resurrection, Starscream and Shockwave worked to build an army of Predacons to vanquish the Autobots. However, a resurrected Megatron (controlled by Unicron) spoiled their plans. Starscream was later relieved when he found Megatron free of Unicron's control, but Unicron's constant torture had changed Megatron, and he disbanded the Decepticons. Destroyerz 3.0 Starscream had gone rogue around the time of Megatron's desertion, leaving Astrotrain and Dark Blast to command the Decepticons. Starscream's attempts to conquer the Decepticons continued, but he was constantly thwarted. Eventually, Astrotrain disappeared and Dark Blast become a Chaos Bringer known as Bio-Blast, leading the Decepticons to be taken over by Nitrotron. During the War between Strikus Prime (a temporarily reformed Bio-Blast) and Nitrotron's forces, Starscream's whereabouts remained unknown. Transformers Revolution By Revolution, Starscream had made contact with an unknown alien race who gave him new powers, abilities and chassis. Starscream had apparently given up on seizing Decepticon Leadership and instead focused on building up his own Army, which consisted of the Dimension Guardian Ouja and numerous clones of himself. It was soon revealed that Starscream still planned on claiming leadership over the Decepticons. He was able to forge an alliance with even the former Dimension Guardian Outcast (who granted him the Dark Spark) as well as a mysterious creature known as Nightmare. Starscream eventually learned about human teen actress Olivia Holt having joined the Autobots and soon took to making an enemy of her by killing her partner, Crosshairs. What Starscream didn't know was Olivia's meeting of the Autobots was a result of being introduced to them by his former ally, Terrotack. When Olivia turned out to actually be a Cybertronian herself, Starscream discovered her as being the "Key to ending their War" and attempted to capture her several times. When Blazorwrath captured her, Starscream arrived to discover the necklace she always kept was to be used to rebuild the AllSpark. Starscream immediately attacked, holding off Blazorwrath long enough for the Autobots to rescue her and escape with the AllSpark. Enraged, Starscream cut off his attack and fled. One of Starscream's final Revolution battles was against Dimensional Guardians including Agent, though the Seeker and his forces where embarrassingly defeated. Starscream jetted off after the battle, making way for the Battle of Los Angeles to proceed When all Cybertronians were called back to Cybertron for stasis, Starscream made his way back to the planet after storing away the Dark Spark for later use. Transformers Frontier By the year 2183, Starscream was the first Cybertronian to emerge from stasis and immediately made for Earth where he recovered the Dark Spark. The Autobots soon followed him and Starscream was astonished to find Megatron working with them. As cover for his escape, Starscream set off a Nexus Bomb (powerful bombs banished from Cybertron millions of years ago), though Megatron managed to throw it up into the sky before it could cause any damage. It remained unknown how Starscream had acquired access to Nexus Bombs. Using the Dark Spark, Starscream once more brought the menace of Outcast to the universe. Starscream was pleased to discover that the Constructicons had survived and recruited them to his Army. With Pyrotron and the rest of the Decepticons in permenanet stasis on Cybertron, Starscream soon proclaimed himself the new Leader of the Decepticons, and his allied Army subsequently chanted "All Hail Lord Starscream!" At some point following the squirmish between Goldbug's team and the Megatronus' Destroyers, Starscream begun seeking reserves of Energon to power another attack on the Autobots. Powers and Abilities Since his alliance with the Others, Starscream's powers and abilities have increased greatly. His null rays are powerful enough to send Optimus Prime flying and even incapacitate him for a period of time, as well as immobilizing Goldbug or even the Overlord. Starscream is also shown to be extremely well trained with swords, fighting as if he were a gladiator from the Pits of Kaon. He is capable of holding his own against Spark and Xenoking and his speed allows him to outmaneuver the Autobots in combat. His strength is enough that he was able to overpower the Autobots when his forces were incapacitated and he was even able to survive a blast that should have completely vaporized him. Though he is shown to be a capable warrior and a considerable threat (shown where he single-handedly overpowered the Autobots and managed to take down Optimus Prime for a period), he is still no match for Pyrotron in a fair fight (if Decepticons were capable of fighting fair). Personality Starscream is descriped to be ambitious, seeking leadership for himself. Though he acts loyal to the Decepticon Leader, it is merely to cover the fact that he is seeking to usurp him. Starscream showed some degree of respect to those under his command, but it seemed that he was always using them to further his goals, as some of his alliances such as his partnership with Mindwipe eventually coming to an end in betrayal. Notes and Trivia *Starscream seems to have been seeking Leadership over the Decepticons for many years. **It is not until 2183 that he finally manages to acquire Decepticon Leadership. *In the Stasis Outbreak story arc, Starscream was pathetically trashed by Pyrotron about four times. Later, in Project Devastation, he was able to stand his ground in a duel using one of Pyrotron's own swords and even came extremely close to beheading him. What the hell? *He bears a lot of similarities to his Transformers Animated counterpart.